Online shopping systems and methods that include a gaming experience for shoppers

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for conducting or facilitating online shopping transactions that include gaming experiences for buyers/shoppers are disclosed. An exemplary method includes receiving a request to purchase an item which is offered for sale by an online seller from an online buyer/shopper, and, in response to receiving said request to purchase the item, determining an actual sales price of the item from among the plurality of possible sales prices using a gaming mechanism. According to one aspect of the invention, the gaming mechanism operates to determine the actual sales price in response to the buyer&#39;s/shopper&#39;s interaction with attributes of the gaming mechanism displayed to the buyer/shopper via, for example, an Internet browser. Generating visual attributes of a gaming mechanism for an online buyer/shopper to view and interact with during an online shopping transaction makes the online shopping experience a more exciting and enjoyable process, compared to prior art online shopping approaches.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 60/917,918, filed on May 14, 2007, the content of whichis hereby incorporated by reference in entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to online business transactions. Moreparticularly, the present invention relates to online shopping systemsand methods that include a gaming experience for shoppers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The Internet has evolved into a powerful vehicle for conducting businesstransactions. Every day, millions of people and businesses use theInternet to buy and sell just about every product and serviceimaginable. This “online” approach to buying and selling goods andservices (commonly referred as “electronic commerce” or “eCommerce”)has, in many instances, displaced traditional forms of commerce. Onesignificant advantage of electronic commerce is that it does not requireface-to-face meetings between buyers and sellers, thereby avoiding thetime and expense that would otherwise be required of the buyer andseller to meet at a physical location.

Another advantage of electronic commerce is that it increases the numberof potential sellers. Unlike traditional sellers, online sellers do notneed to have a “brick-and-mortar” building (i.e., a physical building)to transact business. This attribute of electronic commerce allowssellers who do not have the resources necessary to pay for propertycosts, such as rent, for example, to participate in the online market.The greater number of sellers results in increased competition and lowerprices. Competition among sellers also results from the sellers' beingaware that online shoppers/buyers have the ability to efficiently shopnumerous online stores before settling on a final purchase.

While electronic commerce has become a competitive and efficient way ofperforming business transactions, it is often a dull and unexcitingprocess for shoppers, particularly for those shoppers who desireexcitement in their shopping experience. In a typical electronicbusiness transaction, a shopper is presented with a list or menu ofproducts or services that are available for purchase on a vendor'swebsite. Through a graphical user interface (GUI) provided by a browser,the shopper manipulates a mouse or keyboard to select a desired itemfrom the list or menu. The selected item is then electronically placedin an electronic version of a “shopping cart.” After the shopper hasselected all of the items he or she wishes to purchase, a check-outprocedure is executed in which the shopper enters his or her paymentinformation and shipping information. The electronic businesstransaction process is completed once the authenticity of the shopperand the shopper's payment and shipping information (e.g., credit cardnumber and address) have been verified.

As can be seen, prior art online shopping approaches can be quite dulland do not offer or involve an exciting shopping experience forshoppers. It would be desirable, therefore, to have systems and methodsfor online shopping that offer a fun and exciting experience toshoppers.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Systems and methods for conducting or facilitating online shoppingtransactions that include gaming experiences for buyers/shoppers aredisclosed. An exemplary method includes receiving a request to purchasean item which is offered for sale by an online seller from an onlinebuyer/shopper, and, in response to receiving the request to purchase theitem, determining an actual sales price of the item from among theplurality of possible sales prices using a gaming mechanism. Accordingto one aspect of the invention, the gaming mechanism operates todetermine the actual sales price in response to the buyer's/shopper'sinteraction with attributes of the gaming mechanism displayed to thebuyer/shopper via, for example, an Internet browser. Other methods aredescribed and claimed below.

An exemplary system for facilitating an online shopping transactionincludes a first computing subsystem adapted to offer an item for saleaccording to operation of a gaming mechanism and a second computingsubsystem configured to access the offer via a computer network (e.g.,via the Internet). The first computing subsystem is operable to receivean agreement from an operator of the second computing subsystem topurchase the item at a price determined by the gaming mechanism. Thesecond computing system is configured to display visual attributes ofthe gaming mechanism. The operator of the second computing system (e.g.,a buyer/shopper) can view these visual attributes, and, in someembodiments, also interact with them, during the online shoppingtransaction. Other systems are described and claimed below.

The gaming mechanism can be implemented in various ways. According toone embodiment of the invention, it is implemented as a computersoftware applet or a software routine provided by the seller foroperation on the buyer's/shopper's computer (e.g., within thebuyer's/shopper's web browser). The applet or software routine and thebuyer's/shopper's browser together operate to render images for displayto the buyer/shopper. The images include visual attributes of the gamingmechanism and/or associated images of a plurality of possible prices thebuyer/shopper is willing to pay for an item offered for sale. Accordingto one aspect of the invention, the images comprise time-varying (e.g.,animated) features of the game of the gaming mechanism, which thebuyer/shopper may both visually enjoy and interact with during theonline shopping transaction in determining an actual price to be paidfor the item offered for sale. The gaming mechanism may be configured toprovide any number of different types of games, some of which aredescribed below as including a spinning cube, a roulette-like wheelpartitioned into a number of sectors, a multi-faceted die, and a deck ofplaying cards.

By including a gaming mechanism as part of an online shoppingtransaction, online shopping is made to be a more enjoyable and excitingexperience, compared to prior art electronic shopping methods.

Further features and advantages of the present invention, as well as thestructure and operation of the above-summarized and other exemplaryembodiments of the invention, are described in detail below with respectto accompanying drawings, in which like reference numbers are used toindicate identical or functionally similar elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an exemplary online shopping transactionsystem that includes a gaming experience for buyers, according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating salient components of anexemplary computing device, in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIGS. 3A-3D are drawings showing a series of web pages provided by avendor's or seller's website during an online shopping transactionincluding a gaming experience with the use of a gaming mechanism, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 3E-3G are drawings showing alternative gaming mechanisms that maybe used instead of the exemplary gaming mechanism used in FIGS. 3A-3D;and

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process of facilitatingonline shopping transactions that includes a gaming experience forbuyers, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring first to FIG. 1, there is shown an exemplary online shoppingtransaction system 10 that includes a gaming experience for buyers,according to an embodiment of the present invention. The online shoppingtransaction system 10 comprises a first computing device 112 configuredto execute an online shopping transaction application that includes agaming feature 114 at least one second computing device 122 having anonline browsing application 124 (e.g., a web browser) installed thereon,and a computer data network 102 through which the first computing device112 and the at least one of said second computing devices 122 a-122 nare coupled.

The online shopping transaction application with gaming feature 114 isconfigured to receive remote commands electronically (e.g., a confirmedpurchase request, selection of an item, etc.) from, and send reply oracknowledgement commands or messages to, one of the second computingdevices 122 a-122 n over the data network 102 (e.g., the Internet).

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the onlineshopping transaction application with gaming feature 114 comprises awebsite offering products (e.g., goods or services) for sale by aseller. One or more buyers may purchase offered products via a webbrowser 124 (e.g., Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, etc.) over theInternet (i.e., the data network 102). The gaming feature provides thebuyers a gaming experience while purchasing goods/services through awebsite created by such online shopping transaction application 114. Inparticular, the gaming feature includes a gaming mechanism capable ofproducing a set of random outcomes (or predetermined outcomes in analternative embodiment). The set of outcomes is further divided into anumber of subsets with each subset designated to one of correspondingpre-set prices. Buyers would pay for the product with one of the pre-setprices based upon the outcome of the gaming mechanism. More details ofthe gaming feature and gaming experience are explained below.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating salient components of anexemplary computing device 20 which may be used to implement the firstand second computing device 112 and 122 a-122 n in FIG. 1. Eachcomputing device 20 includes a processor 204 coupled to a data bus 202.Also coupled to the data bus 202 are a storage device 206, an I/Ointerface 214 and a network interface 216. The processor 204 (e.g.,microprocessor, microcontroller, or central processing unit (CPU)) isconfigured to execute programming instructions, and/or other directives,to synchronize operations of the various devices and interfaces coupledto the data bus 202. The storage device 206 is configured to store anapplication module 208 (e.g., online shopping transaction application114 of FIG. 1) containing program instructions for the processor 204 toexecute. The storage device 206 may comprise, but is not limited to,random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), flash memory,Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM or EPROM),registers, hard disk drives, removable disk, compact disk (CD-ROM),Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), any combination of these storage devices,or any other form of storage medium that may be separate from orintegrated with the processor 204. The application module 208 may alsobe referred to as a software module, or executable by those of ordinaryskill in the art.

The I/O interface 214 is configured to allow a user to interact with thecomputing device 20 via, for example, a keyboard and/or a pointingdevice (e.g., a mouse, a trackball, etc.). Although not shown in thedrawing, a display monitor and one or more speakers are also includedfor viewing visual output (e.g., texts and/or graphics) and listening toaudio output (e.g., sounds, voices, etc.), respectively. The networkinginterface 216 is included to provide the computing device 20 the abilityto communicate with other computing devices (e.g., the computing devices122 a-122 n in FIG. 1) over the data network 102 (e.g., the Internet)wired or wireless.

According to the various embodiments of the present invention, an onlineshopping transaction is conducted between an online seller (i.e.,vendor) and an online buyer (i.e., shopper) over the data network (e.g.,the Internet, World Wide Web, or Local Area Network (LAN)). The selleroffers products or services in a website hosted by the seller's computer(e.g., the first computing device 112 in FIG. 1) and/or third partycomputers, while the buyer uses a web browser 124 (e.g., Firefox,Internet Explorer, Opera, etc.) installed on the buyer's computer (e.g.,the second computing devices 122 a-122 n in FIG. 1) to access thewebsite to make an online purchase.

The seller's website comprises one or more web pages containing productinformation (e.g., price, product descriptions, etc.). Each of the webpages comprises computer code created using a computer language (e.g.,Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML),Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), etc.). Once created, the computer code isstored in a storage device (e.g., the storage device 206) in theseller's computer. Each web page is identified by a unique web address(i.e., Uniform Resource Locator (URL)) that can be located and accessedby other computing devices coupled to the network. For example, once theonline shopper/buyer enters the web address of a particular web page inthe browser, the stored computer code is accessed (i.e., downloaded) andthen executed and/or interpreted by the browser. The stored computercode includes information such as text, metadata of text (e.g., size,font, color, format, etc.), image, metadata of image (e.g., location,size, etc.), and other hyperlinks.

In accordance with embodiments of the invention, one or more of the webpages include, or include links to an applet that provides the gamingfeatures the online shopper/buyer can view and/or interact with. For thepurpose of this disclosure an “applet” is meant to refer to a softwarecomponent that runs in the context of the browser and which is operableto render a series of animated images in the buyer's/shopper's browser.The applet may be run as soon as the web page is accessed (e.g., theshopper enters the web address), may be configured to run for a pre-settime period, after which it stops automatically, or is configured to runcontinuously until interrupted by a command issued by the buyer orseller. According to one embodiment, the applet begins running as soonas the web page is accessed (e.g., as soon as the buyer's/shopper'sbrowser links to the seller's website address), and continues to rununtil the buyer/shopper provides a command which stops the animation(e.g., a “buy” command). According to an alternative embodiment theapplet is activated and halted only in response to start and stopcommands issued by the buyer/shopper via the browser. In any one or moreof these embodiments, the applet, in addition to providing a graphicalinterface that can be interacted with by the buyer/shopper, may beconfigured to forward commands from the buyer/shopper back to theseller's server (e.g., to a servlet configured on the seller's server)for processing. Finally, while an applet has been described in thisexemplary embodiment as being configured for execution by thebuyer's/shopper's browser, in alternative embodiments the computer codefor the gaming mechanism may be configured for distributed execution onboth the buyer's and seller's computers, as will be appreciated by thoseof ordinary skill in the art.

FIGS. 3A-3D shown a series of web pages 31-34 provided by a vendor'swebsite (e.g., a website created by the online shopping transactionapplication 114 of FIG. 1) during an online shopping transaction, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The first webpage 31 in FIG. 3A shows a product (in this example, a stuffed animal)offered for sale in an online shopping transaction. The first web page31 may include, but is not necessarily limited to, a web address 302(e.g., www.bamwoo.com), a title of one of the products (i.e., goods orservices) 304 that a buyer is desirous to acquire, more details aboutthe product or service (e.g., a picture of a stuffed animal), links toother web pages or websites containing more detailed information 306 ofthe product, a price determination block or section 308 that includes agaming mechanism 312 (in this example, a four-faceted die), a purchaseactivation (“buy”) button 310 for the user to submit a buy request, anda price-outcome correlation table 311.

The four-faceted die 312 is capable of producing four different ordistinct outcomes as indicated in a first column 313 of the table 311.Each of the possible outcomes corresponds to a pre-set price, as shownby the column of pre-set prices in the second column 314 of the table311. The pre-set prices may be determined by the seller such that thebuyer would receive one of the pre-set prices for this product dependingupon which face of the four-faceted die 312 would end up (e.g.,simulated by the online shopping transaction application 114). The “buy”button 310 is configured for the buyer or user to submit a purchaserequest. For example, the user may click a mouse button while the cursoris over the button 310 in one instance, or the user may press an “enter”key on the keyboard to achieve the same function. The “buy” button 310may also be labeled as a special button, for example, a “bamwoo!”button.

As the buyer submits the purchase request through the “buy” button 310,a second web page 32, shown in FIG. 3B, is displayed. Overall, theappearance of the second web page 32 is very similar to that of thefirst web page 31, except a purchase request confirmation block orpop-up window 324 is created and displayed. The buyer may click the“yes” button 326 to confirm, or this transaction may be canceled byclicking the “no” button 328. The second web page 32 is used to ensure aconfirmed purchase request from the buyer. The confirmed purchaserequest implies that the buyer has been authenticated and authorized forthis particular online shopping transaction. In other words, theauthenticated buyer authorizes the seller to charge at most the highestof the pre-set prices listed in the price-outcome correlation table 311.For the example shown in FIG. 3B, $10.20 is the highest possible pricethat the buyer would have to pay for this particular product.

Once the confirmed purchase request is received at the seller's onlineshopping transaction application, a third web page 33, shown in FIG. 3C,is rendered in which operation of rolling a die is simulated. Forexample, the gaming mechanism (i.e., moving four-faceted die 322) is putinto a spinning motion 321 by the online shopping transactionapplication. The simulation of the operation of rolling the four-faceteddie is continued for a pre-defined period of time. Alternatively thesimulation would only be halted in response to a command from the buyer,for example, the buyer presses one of the keys on a keyboard or clicksthe mouse button while curser is over the spinning die. The simulationof the die spinning motions and other visual and audio effects (e.g.,flashing highlights of the correlation table 311) provides gamingexperience that the buyer would not be able to enjoy if the buyerconducts online shopping transaction with any of the prior artapproaches.

At the end of the pre-defined simulation period (e.g., a few seconds),one of the outcomes 332 of the gaming mechanism is presented in a fourthweb page 34 illustrated in FIG. 3D. The actual sales price is the pricecorresponding to the determined outcome, which is distinguished fromother undetermined outcomes and pre-set prices. In this example, theface of the die having four dots is the outcome, which corresponds to$9.90 from the correlation table 311. In order to produce each of thepossible outcomes randomly, a mathematical algorithm called a randomnumber generator or pseudo-random number generator is employed in theonline shopping transaction application 114. Finally, an online shoppingtransaction summary 338 is displayed on the fourth web page 34, whichnotifies the buyer of the actual sales price and/or an account status(e.g., balance, charge, etc.). The actual outcome may also behighlighted with a flashing display, bright color or other audio orvisual means to make the buyer excited as if a game was being played inthe online shopping transaction.

While the gaming mechanism shown and described above comprises afour-faceted die 312, a six-sided cube corresponding to six differentpossible sales prices may alternatively be used. When activated, thecube is presented to the user/buyer as a spinning cube. After apredetermined period of time, the spinning is halted (e.g., after theuser clicks on the spinning cube) and one of the six sides of the cubewith an actual sales price is presented to the buyer.

Other alternative gaming mechanisms can alternatively be used, as willbe appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art. FIGS. 3E-3G show,for example, three other alternatives. In FIG. 3E, the gaming mechanismcomprises a first wheel 342 similar to a roulette used in a gamblingcasino. The wheel 342 is divided into four sectors 344 with each sectorcorresponding to one of the pre-set prices. As the buyer submits thepurchase request by clicking the “buy” button 310, the wheel 342 spinsin a direction 343 for a pre-defined period of time. At the end of thespin, the actual sales price is the price associated with the sectorpointed by the price determination indicator 341.

According to another embodiment, shown in FIG. 3F, the gaming mechanismcomprises a second wheel 352 divided into a plurality of slots 354. Eachslot is associated with one of the pre-set prices. When the buyer clicksthe “buy” button 310, the wheel 352 spins for a pre-defined period oftime in a direction indicated by a dashed line arrow 353. The actualsales price is the price indicated by the slot that appears adjacent tothe price determination indicator 351 once the wheel 352 stops.

FIG. 3G shows yet another embodiment in which the gaming mechanismcomprises a deck of playing cards 372. There are 13 possible distinctoutcomes (i.e., 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K and A) for theplaying cards. The first column 373 of a price-outcome correlation table371 defines four subsets of the outcomes. Each subset corresponds to oneof the prices listed in the second column 374. With the correlationtable 371, any of the outcomes can be referred to one of the pre-setprices as the actual sales price.

While the exemplary embodiments above have been shown and described inthe context of a few gaming mechanisms, the systems and methods of thepresent invention can also be adapted to operate using any other gamingmechanisms that are capable of producing a limited number of randomlygenerates or predetermined outcomes. A common feature in the embodimentsdescribed herein is that user-sensible characteristics of the gamingmechanism are displayed along with the plurality of the possible pricesof the item for sale. Implementation of the gaming mechanism may beachieved using an applet included in computer code of the onlineshopping transaction application. The applet is downloaded from theseller's computing device and executed within the web browser installedon the buyer's computing device.

Referring now to FIG. 4, there is shown a flowchart illustrating anexemplary process 40 by which the system 10 in FIG. 1 operates tofacilitate online shopping transactions with a gaming experience forbuyers, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Prior to receiving an instruction to search products (i.e., goods orservices) from the user or buyer, the process 40 displays a search menuat 402 for the buyer to enter one or more search criteria. The process40 shows the search menu, until the buyer enters certain categories thatare desirous to acquire. Once the search criteria have been entered,decision 404 becomes “yes”. The process 40 moves to a decision 406, inwhich products that fit the entered search criteria are determined. Ifno match is found, a message indicating “products not found” isdisplayed at step 408 before the process 40 goes back to display theproduct search menu at step 402. If “yes”, at step 410 a menu of allproducts fit the entered search criteria (i.e., found products) islisted and displayed for the buyer or user to shop (i.e., browse and/orpurchase).

Next, at decision 412 it is determined whether the buyer or user hasmade a selection from the menu. If “no”, the process 40 moves to anotherdecision 414. If the buyer wishes to continue shopping with the samesearch criteria, the process 40 moves to step 410; otherwise, theprocess 40 moves back to step 402 to start over again for new searchcriteria. If “yes” at step 416, the online shopping transactionapplication 114 creates a webpage similar to the first web page 31 ofFIG. 3A. The product title, detailed descriptions of the product, alongwith a price determination block or section is displayed in the webpage.In addition, a gaming mechanism configured to produce a set of randomoutcomes (or predetermined outcomes, in an alternative embodiment) isincluded in the price determination block.

The process 40 then moves to decision 418, in which it is determined ifa purchase request has been received (e.g., if a “buy” button has beenactivated). If “no”, the process 40 goes back to step 410 to let thebuyer make another selection from the menu that lists all foundproducts. Otherwise, the process 40 moves to another decision 420 todetermine if the buyer is authenticated and authorized to conduct thisparticular business transaction. For example, the buyer may be requiredto register and to place a credit card or bank account so that theseller can collect the sale proceeds. If the result of decision is “no”,the process 40 ends. It may require the buyer to register or valid acredit card, etc. If the decision 420 is “yes”, the second web page 32of FIG. 3B is displayed. Another decision 422 is to ensure the buyer tomake a confirmed purchase request. If “no”, the process again goes backto step 410. Otherwise, the buyer is committed to purchasing theselected product with one of the pre-set prices listed in theprice-outcome correlation table. At step 424, the online shoppingtransaction application performs random price determination bysimulating operation of the gaming mechanism (e.g., the third web page33 of FIG. 3C). Next, at step 426, the user account is debited with theactual sales price determined in step 424 (e.g., the fourth web page 34of FIG. 3D). Finally, the process 40 goes back to decision 414 to decidewhether the buyer wishes to do more shopping in the same searchcriteria. If “yes”, the process 40 goes to step 410; otherwise step 402.The process 40 repeats for prospective buyers.

In general, the methods described above, including the processesperformed by the online shopping transaction application 114, areperformed by applets, servlets, or software routines executing in acomputer system. The routines may be implemented by any number ofcomputer programming languages such as, for example, Hypertext MarkupLanguage, (HTML), Java, C, C++, Pascal, FORTRAN, assembly language, etc.Further, various programming approaches such as procedural,object-oriented or artificial intelligence techniques may be employed.As is understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, the program codecorresponding to the methods and processes described herein may bestored on a computer-readable medium. Depending on each particularimplementation, computer-readable media suitable for this purpose mayinclude, without limitation, floppy diskettes, compact disks (CDs), harddrives, networked attached storage devices, random access memory (RAM),read only memory (ROM) and flash memory.

Although the present invention has been described with reference tospecific embodiments thereof, these embodiments are merely illustrative,and not restrictive of, the present invention. Various modifications orchanges to the specifically disclosed exemplary embodiments will besuggested to persons skilled in the art. For example, whereas the gamingmechanism has been shown and described as comprising a vertically orhorizontally mounted roulette-like wheel, a multi-faceted die, or a deckof playing cards, any other gaming mechanisms capable of producing a setof random, pseudo-random or predetermined outcomes, may also be used.

For at least these reasons, therefore, the scope of the invention shouldnot be restricted to the specific exemplary embodiments disclosedherein, and all modifications that are readily suggested to those ofordinary skill in the art should be included within the spirit andpurview of this application and scope of the appended claims.

1. A method of facilitating an online shopping transaction, comprising:receiving a request to purchase an item offered for sale by an onlineseller from an online buyer, said request to purchase including anagreement to purchase said item at one of a plurality of possible salesprices; and in response to receiving said request to purchase the itemoffered for sale, determining an actual sales price of the item fromamong said plurality of possible sales prices using a gaming mechanism.2. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a relationshipbetween said plurality of possible sales prices and a plurality ofpossible outcomes of said gaming mechanism to the buyer.
 3. The methodof claim 1, further comprising displaying visual attributes of thegaming mechanism to the buyer.
 4. The method of claim 3 whereindisplaying visual attributes of the gaming mechanism to the buyercomprises displaying time-varying visual effects of the gamingmechanism.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising visuallydistinguishing a display of the actual sales price from a display of theremaining possible, but undetermined, sales prices of the plurality ofpossible sales prices to the buyer, after determining the actual salesprice of said item.
 6. The method of claim 3 wherein determining saidactual sales price is performed by randomly or pseudo-randomly selectingfrom among said plurality of possible sales prices.
 7. The method ofclaim 3 wherein the visual attributes of said gaming mechanism comprisea multi-faceted three-dimensional structure having one or more facesthat correspond to said plurality of possible sales prices or to saidactual sales price.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein the visualattributes of said gaming mechanism comprise a circular disc or wheelpartitioned into a plurality of slots, one or more slots of saidplurality of slots corresponding to said plurality of possible salesprices or to said actual sales price.
 9. The method of claim 1 whereinthe visual attributes of said gaming mechanism comprise one or moreplaying cards.
 10. The method of claim 1 wherein the visual attributesof said gaming mechanism comprise one or more dice.
 11. A system forfacilitating an online shopping transaction that includes a gamingexperience for buyers, comprising: a first computing subsystem adaptedto offer an item for sale according to operation of a gaming mechanism;and a second computing subsystem configured to access said offer via acomputer network and display visual attributes of said gaming mechanismto an operator of the second computing system, wherein said firstcomputing subsystem is operable to receive an agreement from saidoperator to purchase said item at a price determined by said gamingmechanism.
 12. The system of claim 11, further comprising means fordisplaying a plurality of possible sales prices said operator agrees topay for said item and relationships among said plurality of possiblesales prices and one or more of said visual attributes of said gamingmechanism.
 13. The system of claim 11, further comprising means forgenerating visually displayable and time-varying attributes of saidgaming mechanism.
 14. The system of claim 11 wherein the first computingsubsystem is configured to offer the item for sale to said operator ofsaid second computing subsystem for a plurality of possible salesprices, and said gaming mechanism is operable to determine an actualsales prices from among the plurality of possible sales prices inresponse to receiving said agreement from said operator to purchase saiditem at a price determined by said gaming mechanism.
 15. The system ofclaim 14 wherein the gaming mechanism is further configured to determinethe actual sales price from among the plurality of possible sales pricesby randomly or pseudo-randomly selecting from among the plurality ofpossible sales prices.
 16. The system of claim 14 wherein the actualsales price determined by the gaming mechanism from among the pluralityof possible sales prices is predetermined.
 17. A method of facilitatingan online shopping transaction between an online shopper and an onlineseller, comprising: providing computer code of one or more web pages toa browser of a computer operated by an online shopper, said computercode including a gaming mechanism and instructions for said browser todisplay a plurality of possible sales prices of an item for sale andvisual attributes of said gaming mechanism corresponding to theplurality of possible sales prices; and determining an actual salesprice the shopper agrees to pay for said item from said plurality ofpossible sales prices, by operation of said gaming mechanism.
 18. Themethod of claim 17 wherein determining the actual sales price theshopper agrees to pay for said item is triggered by a request topurchase said item from said shopper.
 19. The method of claim 17 whereinsaid computer code includes instructions that provide said shopper theability to interact with said gaming mechanism via said browser.
 20. Themethod of claim 19 wherein the instructions that provide said shopperthe ability to interact with said gaming mechanism include instructionsthat allow said shopper to activate or halt operation of said gamingmechanism.
 21. The method of claim 19 wherein the instructions for saidbrowser to display the plurality of possible sales prices of the itemfor sale and/or to display visual attributes of said gaming mechanismcomprises an applet.
 22. A method of conducting an online shoppingtransaction, comprising: offering an item for sale to an online shopper;presenting attributes of a gaming mechanism to said online shopper, saidgaming mechanism attributes including a plurality of user-sensiblecharacteristics corresponding to a plurality of possible sales prices ofsaid item; and selecting an actual sales price from among said severalpossible sales prices, based on operation of said gaming mechanism. 23.The method of claim 22 wherein selecting the actual sales price fromamong said several possible sales prices comprises selecting the actualsales price in response to the online shopper's interaction with saidgaming mechanism.
 24. A computer-usable medium having a computerreadable medium stored thereon for execution by a processor to perform amethod comprising: presenting a web page showing an item for sale andattributes of a gaming mechanism to an online shopper, said gamingmechanism attributes including a plurality of user-sensiblecharacteristics corresponding to a plurality of possible sales prices ofsaid item; and selecting an actual sales price from among said severalpossible sales prices, based on operation of said gaming mechanism. 25.The computer-usable medium of claim 24 wherein selecting the actualsales price from among said several possible sales prices comprisesselecting the actual sales price in response to the online shopper'sinteraction with said gaming mechanism.